Instruments housings are widely used for various purposes and particularly have countless uses in the electronics field. Such uses include counters, meters, CB radios, testers, oscilloscopes, thermocouples, bridges, etc. From a manufacturing standpoint, it would be very desirable if basic components could be utilized by the manufacturer for assemblying the housings in any one of a wide variety of different sizes and configurations as well as incorporating special equipment that might be required by individual diverse users.
It is known, for example, to manufacture such housings in modular form wherein separate elements comprise the top and bottom members as well as the sides and end panels. It is also well known to incorporate handle structures on the housings which can be locked into various positions for portability and/or maintaining the housing at a particular orientation during use.
Various teachings have been employed in the art for the assembly of such housings. It is well known in the art for example to utilize insert panels as part of the side walls to vary the height for the housing, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,687,325 or by a commercial housing known as the Tracewell Enclosure which is described in an April 1974 brochure from Tracewell Enclosures, Inc., of Columbus, Ohio. The Tracewell Enclosure, as well as U.S. Pat. No. 3,284,151, also utilize top and bottom walls having integral perpendicular side extensions which are secured in various manners to separate intermediate side panels. In the Tracewell Enclosure end plates are fit into endless peripheral grooves in the top and bottom and side walls. The concept of interchangeable wall sections is also exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 1,402,769 wherein the various sides fit or telescope into grooves and then are secured together by screws inserted through one wall for threaded engagement at the other wall. U.S. Pat. No. 1,875,101 exemplifies the expediency of varying the dimension of an electrical housing by the utilization of telescopic side sections. In that patent a pair of face plates or covers are provided each with depending side sections with the side sections of one being telescopically arranged with respect to the other and with the elements locked in place by threaded fasteners. One assembly expediency is practiced commercially for example by JVC America in its portable ratio-TV and by Zero Manufacturing Company with its COMPACT 1 Enclosures where side extensions of the top and bottom covers telescope into slotted side panels so that access could be had to the chassis by withdrawing the top cover with is integral side extensions from the panels.
Based on this state of the art various ramifications would seem obvious and have been used. For example, the dimensional adjustability could be obtained by forming the covers and depending side sections generally identical with each other, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,284,151; IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 18, No. 6 of November 1975; or the Tracewell Enclosure and effecting the adjustability by telescopic relationship of the depending side extensions with the inserts or side panels in view of similar telescopic action in U.S. Pat. No. 1,875,101. The obvious manners of providing such telescopic action could be either by sliding engagement or by inserting one member in a groove of the other, whether the grooves be in the depending side extensions of the covers or in the separate side panels. This would be similar to the aforenoted commercial practices of JVC and Zero where the side extensions on the top and bottom covers slide into grooves or slots in the side panels. The various elements could then be locked together by threaded fasteners. Where lengthy threaded fasteners are utilized it is common to provide hollow guideposts therefore, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,209,208 and by the Tracewell Enclosure which has hollow posts integrally mounted on the side panels.
Similarly, various handle structures have been utilized by the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,775 for example discloses an instrument housing having an adjustable handle with means provided for selectively locking it in various positions. These means include interfitting splines and recesses on the handle and on a reinforcing rib of the housing for indexing the handle or locking it into selected positions with the unlocking being accomplished by virtue of the resiliency of the handle arms which permits the handle to be axially withdrawn from the housing sockets.
Various other expediences are practiced by the prior art. It is conventional, for example, when utilizing the housings for mounting various circuit boards to provide appropriate vertical posts, grooves or other guides for properly positioning the circuit boards. U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,792, for example, discloses integrally molded ribs or grooves on the housing walls for slidably receiving circuit boards or cards, while the Tracewell Enclosure also has card receiving grooves molded therein.